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I have suggested many times that the commercialization of Formula One was akin to the Goose that laid the Golden Egg. At some point, greed would bring the whole thing crashing down. At year’s end, two teams — Marussia and Caterham — had gone bankrupt. Force India, Sauber and Lotus are barely hanging on. How much longer can Red Bull field two teams? The disgraced Max Mosley warned years ago that a day of financial reckoning was coming. He was right.

2. L’Estage undefeated in winning seventh Canadian Rally Championship

Quebec rally racer Antoine L’Estage cleaned the table en route to his seventh Canadian Rally Championship. He won all six events in the 2014 championship. He also won his seventh North American rally title this year. As has been the case with many auto racers, only the lack of sponsorship dollars has kept him from competing on the world stage.

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3. Michael Schumacher fights to recover from head injury

Although the accident happened on Dec. 29, technically making it a 2013 news story, the fact of the matter is that the devastating injury suffered by Michael Schumacher, arguably the world’s greatest racing driver, only became fully known during 2014. Schumacher was skiing with his son at a French resort just before New Year’s when he lost his balance and smashed his head against a rock. It has since been revealed that he is paralyzed.

4. Kurt Busch accused of assault

Kurt Busch is a wonderful racing car driver but his personal life is always — it seems — in turmoil. Since he broke into the big-time world of NASCAR in 2002, there has not been a year go by that he hasn’t been in trouble with either his employer of the day, or NASCAR. Near season’s end, news broke that he had been accused by his ex-girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll, of assaulting her. A police investigation is ongoing. While other sports leagues have been decisive in dealing with domestic assault, NASCAR has said it will wait for the police report. Some people have found that position to be troubling.

5. Ecclestone bribes Germany to have bribery charges dropped

State prosecutors in Germany lay charges of bribery against Bernie Ecclestone. They say they determined that he paid a German banker to do something they said was illegal. So after messing around for a while at trial, Ecclestone turns to one of those prosecutors and says (words to the effect): “How much to make this go away?” And the German prosecutor, much like the German banker before him, says: “How does $100,000 sound?” So Ecclestone says, “Right, here’s a cheque then,” and walks away a free man. I have been waiting ever since for the country of Germany to explain the difference.

6. Kevin Harvick wins NASCAR Championship at winner-takes-all finale

Although other series championships were exciting and the winners represented the cream rising to the top (Lewis Hamilton in Formula One, Will Power in IndyCar), the toughest and most exciting fight for the title was in NASCAR Sprint Cup and when the smoke had cleared, Kevin Harvick won the championship by winning the winner-takes-all final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

7. IndyCar Series? What IndyCar Series

Most of this year’s Top 10 has come from NASCAR and F1. This is because the Verizon IndyCar Series shut down its business on Labour Day weekend and hasn’t been heard from since. No, Simon Pagenaud signing to drive for Roger Penske does not count as news. If IndyCar wants to be seen as Major League, it has to do something about this — fast.

8. Sprint to stop sponsoring NASCAR’s top series

Following the 2016 season, Sprint will no longer sponsor NASCAR’s Cup series. Although NASCAR says this was not a surprise, the fact that its major title sponsor is going away at the same time TV ratings are declining and speedways are removing seats rather than adding them has got to be troubling.

9. Marquez, Elliott earn their spurs

Winners: Marc Márquez of Spain won the MotoGP world championship for the second straight year and he did it in a walk. Chase Elliott is the son of veteran NASCAR champion Bill Elliott. On Labour Day 2013, he won his first big race, a Camping World Truck Series event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. In 2014, he won the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship. He is a chip off the old block.

10: Tony Stewart at the wheel of sprint car that kills driver walking on speedway

In August, during a sprint car race at Canandaigua Motorsports Park, a car driven by Tony Stewart struck and killed race driver Kevin Ward Jr., who was out of his car and walking on the speedway. It was a truly awful story.

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